The Chinook High School Class of 1971 held its fifty-year class reunion over the weekend of July 16-19 in Bigfork, Montana. Among the activities was a fundraising challenge to benefit the Friends of the Pool and Park Foundation. Cole Maddox won the challenge, and the Class of 1971 would like to extend a challenge to the Class of 1972 to improve on their fundraising effort during their own fifty-year reunion next year.

Classmate and reunion co-organizer, Susan Renne Holman offered her property to serve as the central gathering place for reunion activities. Other organizers were Ginny Bruss Carruthers and Bruce Butcher. The organizers' spouses, Jim Holman, Ed Carruthers, and Mary Lou Butcher assisted. Activities included a barbeque at the Holman home, picnic, boating and floating at Swan Lake, dinner and the summer theatre in Bigfork, and a river float on Sunday. Twenty classmates and many spouses attended some or all of the reunion activities.

As part of the reunion, classmates Karen Schellin and Nita DePriest Magnuson conducted a fundraiser for the Chinook Friends of the Pool and Park Foundation. In honor of their graduation year, they set a goal of raising $7,100 for the duration of the fund drive period, which extended for approximately six months.

The fundraising effort initially began in January 2021 with mail correspondence and concluded with cash donations at the Bigfork gathering. A part of the effort was an "inter-classmate" challenge to see which classmate could raise or inspire the most donations. Cole Maddox won the challenge by donating and inspiring his family to donate a total of $1,000 for the fundraising effort. The Maddox donations were made in honor of Cole's parents, the late Wes and Fontella Maddox, and in honor of his wife, Laurie's parents, the late Lee and Esther Sheets.

In total, over thirty donations were collected by the fundraising effort. Sizeable donations were made by classmates Henry Reinhart, Ginny Bruss Carruthers, Connie Edgington Vuckovic, and Arlene Lybeck. Some asked that family members be honored with their donations. Carruthers and her family made their donations in memory of Ginny's late sister Patty Bruss Cowell and in memory of the late Robert Tilleman, an in-law of Ginny's sister. The Edgington Vuckovic family made donations in memory of Connie's late parents, Richard and Carol Edgington. Likewise, a donation by Deanne Hanson Malnaa was made to honor her parents, the late Walter and Alice Hanson.

One donation was made in honor of deceased classmate, Jay Williams, who was tragically killed during Senior Week 1971 just days before graduation. His memory lives on with his classmates.

Other donations at the Bigfork gathering included one to honor Jimmy Magnuson, who passed away during the fundraising effort. He was the son of classmate Nita DePriest Magnuson.

Although the group didn't meet their symbolic goal, they raised a total of $5,521. The Class of 1971 has thrown down the gauntlet to the classes that follow: Top that!